Do Anonymous Apps Keep All Your Secrets?

What would you say if no one could identify you? Websites like PostSecret show the sort of profound messages people send if they remain anonymous. Strangers send one man their postcards and he publishes their thoughts, fears, and confessions to the world every Saturday on his blog. The decorated postcards are sent to his house anonymously. This started before Twitter and before we started sharing Game of Thrones spoilers, memes, click bait, and other silliness.

PostSecret was the first anonymous sharing app. Of course, not all postcards made it onto the site. Frank Warren filters through them every week, so it’s not as unfiltered as some other anonymous apps. But it was a simple concept, and the only indication of who you were was noted by your postmarked letter, which shows the origin of a piece of mail. However, PostSecret rarely shows postmarks on the cards it receives.

Even after PostSecret made big waves across the Internet, life on the Web started to become more and more about open sharing and transparency. However, recent news involving National Security Agency spying and privacy policy concerns have left some social sharers a little more wary about shouting out into the void, and even questioning what they’re texting or sending via email.

Apps like Secret and Whisper may mask your identity to other users, but how protected are you from employees working for these companies? And what do their privacy policies say about sharing your information with advertisers? Here’s a look at the fine print of five popular secret-sharing apps.